Boiler-feeder.



BOILER FEEDER.

(Application filed Dec. 14, 1900.)

(No. Model.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES A. MORSE, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

BOILER-FEEDER.

SEEQIFICA'IION forming part of Letters Patent No. 685,408, dated October 29, 1901 Application filed December 14, 1900. Serial No. 39,824. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Beitknoxvn that I, JAMES A. MORSE, of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Boiler-Feeder, of which the following is a specification,reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which is a diagram illustrating my invention.

My invention resides in an engine, a flashboiler for supplying steam to the engine,a water-tank to supply the flash-boiler, a pump to force water from the water-tank into the flashboiler, and means for varying the amount of water supplied to the boiler at the will of the operator, who simply varies the amount of water fed to the boiler, and thereby controls the running of the vehicle when my apparatus is used in a motor-vehicle, for which it is primarily designed. For example, if a carriage with my improved steam-engine is running'on a level road and the operator desires to run faster he increases the amount of water supplied to the flash-boiler. If he dosires to run slower, he diminishes the amount of water supplied to the flash-boiler; but in going up a hill he increases the supply of water without necessarily increasing the speed, While in going down hillhe cuts off the supply of water altogether if the inclination of the hill is sufficient to give him the speed desired.

The distinguishing characteristic of my invention is that the operator controls the engine mainly by controlling the water-supply to the flash-hoiler, for the fuel-supply is practically constant and must be always sufficient to keep the boiler so hot that all the water supplied is almost instantly converted into steam, so that the pressure in the boiler depends almost wholly upon the rate of the water-feed and the rate of steam supplied to the engine.

In the drawing, A is a flash-boiler, and a is the engine, mounted on supports B, which are fast to the body of a vehicle. Boiler A is fed by pump D from water-tank d, and the essentials of myinvention are an initial pump worked by the operator when the vehicle is to be started and a power-pump worked by the engine, but under the control of the operator so far as the quantity of water pumped by it is concerned. In the best form of my 'Will at once furnish a heating-flame.

'06 entirely; but on short stops it is usually sufficient to keep up a small lighting-flame,

so that when the fuel-supply is increased it This is for economy merely and is not of course new with me, and in practice it is better to keep up the heating-flame unless the stop he of longer duration than the time required to heat up the boiler, for water cannot be admitted advantageously untilthe boiler is hot enough to convert it almost instantly into steam at any considerable pressuresay enough to start the vehicle-for after that the engine operates the pump-that is, on starting, the operator moves the upper end oflever d, and thereby compresses spring d whose pressure moves piston d", and thereby puts the water in the cylinder of the pump under pressure, and the water flows through delivery-pipe d into the boiler A, and this inflow continues until the pressure in the boiler prevents any further inflow. Steam is now admitted to engine a, and the engine not only, propels the vehicle, but also actuates the pump through eccentric d and piston (1 but water is delivered into the boiler only when and as the boiler-pressure falls below the pressure of spring (l -that is, if spring d exerts a pressure of, say, seventy-five pounds to the square inch on the water in the cylinder of the pump no more water will be delivered to the boiler until the pressure in the boiler falls below seventy-five pounds to the square inch; but as soon as the boiler-pressure falls below seventy-five pounds to the square inch spring d will force enough water into the boiler to raise the boiler-pressure above seventy-five pounds to the square inch, and when thepressure in the boiler is above seventy-five pounds the power-piston at will move piston (i and no water will be taken into or forced out of the cylinder.

As the pressure of the spring d is at all times under-control of the operator through hand-lever d, it will be clear that the operator can almost instantly vary the pressure in the boiler to suit all requirements. Thus it he desires to stop he need not even shut the throttle-valve, but may simply so weaken the pressure of spring d as to bring the boilerpressure down too low to run the engine; but when maximum power is required he will bring the pressure of spring (1 to the maximum, and it is easy in practice to attain a pressure in the boiler of upward of one hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch in a few seconds, for the boiler is of course very small and is always kept very hot when in use, as it is poor economy to attempt to regulate the fuel-supply minutely.

Indeed, one of the great advantages of my invention is that the boiler may be so small that it will supply the engine for a very short time only after the water-supply is cut off, and yet it is easy in practice to keep a fairlyconstant boiler-pressure closely approaching but of course varying with the pressure of the spring (1. The main advantage is of course the full control of the boiler-pressure by manipulating one lever only, which is wholly new with me.

\Vhile I have contemplated other forms of pumps, yet the two-piston form shown is not only the best now known to me in-practice, but it is also much simpler than any other form I have contemplated.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. In combinationaflash-boiler; its engine; a feed-pu mp; connections through which the engine actuates the feed-pump; a spring; a piston coacting with that spring; and means under control of the operator for varying the tension of the spring, and thereby varying the feed and the boiler-pressure at will.

2. In a feed-pump the combination of one piston and connections through which that piston is operated by the engine; a second piston which forms one movable abutment for a spring; that spring; a second movable abutment for that spring; and means under control of the operator for controlling the second piston through the second movable abutment and the spring.

JAMES A. MORSE.

Witnesses:

G. A. ROCKWELL, O. 13. MAYNADIER. 

